General purpose distributed operating room control system

ABSTRACT

The present invention pertains to control systems and provides a run time configurable control system for selecting and operating one of a plurality of operating room devices from a single input source, the system comprising a master controller having a voice control interface and means for routing control signals. The system additionally may include a plurality of slave controllers to provide expandability of the system. Also, the system includes output means for generating messages to the user relating to the status of the control system in general and to the status of devices connected thereto.

REFERENCE TO PARENT APPLICATION

[0001] The presently filed application is a continuation-in-partapplication of a U.S. Patent Application entitled GENERAL PURPOSEDISTRIBUTED OPERATING ROOM CONTROL SYSTEM, which was filed with the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office on Aug. 6, 1996 and is currently pendingwith Ser. No. 08/693,352.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] The present invention generally relates to control systems. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to a control system andapparatus that allows multiple surgical devices to be controlled fromone or more input devices. Even more particularly, the present inventionprovides a run-time configurable control system allowing operating roomcomponent connectivity and control.

[0004] 2. Description of Related Art

[0005] Many surgical procedures are performed with multiple instruments.For example, some laproscopic procedures are performed utilizing arobotic arm system produced by Computer Motion, Inc. of Goleta, Calif.to hold and move an endoscope. The surgeon may also use a laser to cuttissue, an electrocautery device to cauterize the tissue, and lights toilluminate the surgical site.

[0006] Each instrument has a unique control interface for its operation.Therefore, the surgeon must independently operate each device. Forexample, the surgeon must utilize a foot pedal to control theelectrocautery device, a separate foot pedal to operate the robotic arm,and yet another interface to operate the laser.

[0007] Operating multiple devices may distract the surgeon, therebyreducing the efficiency of performing various procedures. Additionally,it is cumbersome utilizing various devices where each device has aseparate user interface. If a new device is introduced into theoperating room environment, the doctor must learn how to use the newuser interface. Additionally, there is currently no known run timeconfigurable system for operating more than one specific operating roomdevice via voice control. As such, if there are two or more devices inthe operating room that are voice controlled, the doctor has to removethe microphone used for one device and replace it with the microphonefor the other device. Obviously, this creates many problems associatedwith productivity. Additionally, the necessity of actually switchingbetween many user interfaces takes a measurable amount of time and assuch, extends the time that a patient is under anesthesia, which may addto the danger of a procedure.

[0008] Therefore, what is needed in the art is a general purposeplatform for controlling a plurality of devices such that devices can beadded or subtracted from the platform depending upon the environmentinto which the platform, also known as a control system is introduced.The system may additionally be automatically configured at start up.Additionally, what is needed is a system and method for selecting andoperating one of the plurality of the attached devices, namely operatingroom devices. It is to the solution of the hereinabove mentionedproblems to which the present invention is directed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] In accordance with the present invention there is provided acontrol system for selecting from and controlling a plurality of devicesin an operating room, the control system comprising:

[0010] a master controller, the master controller comprising:

[0011] a) means for receiving selection commands from a user whereineach selection command is associated with one specific device inelectrical communication with the master controller;

[0012] b) means for receiving control commands from a user;

[0013] c) means for converting selection commands and control commandsinto corresponding selection signals and control signals;

[0014] d) means for routing control signals to a device specified by aselection command received by the means for receiving selectioncommands.

[0015] In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, thereis provided a master controller for selecting and controlling aplurality of devices. Each of the plurality of devices to be controlledare in electrical communication or in wireless communication with themaster controller, either directly or via a slave controller which willbe discussed in more detail hereinbelow with respect to the secondaspect of the present invention.

[0016] The master controller includes means for receiving selectioncommands issued by a user. The selection commands available to the userare based upon the devices in electrical communication with the mastercontroller. The master controller may recognize those devices that arein electrical communication therewith upon startup of the mastercontroller. This will be described in detail in the description of thepreferred embodiment. Each device in electrical communication with themaster controller is represented by a correspondingly availableselection command.

[0017] The master controller additionally includes means for receivingcontrol commands from the user. Both the means for receiving selectioncommands and the means for receiving control commands from a user may beincluded in a voice control interface (VCI) for receiving voicecommands. The system may additionally employ a foot pedal, a hand helddevice, or some other device which receives selection or controlcommands or inputs indicative of such commands from a user. The VCIprovides signals indicative of a user's selection of a specific deviceand signals indicative of control commands the user wishes to supply tothe device specified by a specific selection command. These are known,respectively, as selection signals and control signals. If the user isusing a foot pedal, hand controller or some other input device, the VCIis not utilized as the inputs are already in the form of electricalsignals as opposed to voice input. Alternatively, a combination ofdevices may be used to receive selection and control commands and toprovide selection and control signals indicative of such commands.

[0018] The master controller additionally includes means for routingcontrol signals to a device specified by a selection command. Forexample, if the user wants to operate the laser, a device used in manysurgeries and contemplated as being included as one of the devices thatmay be operated via the control system of the present invention, thenthe user may issue a selection command indicating such, i.e. speak theword “laser” or the words “select laser”. As such, the name of thedevice may serve as the selection command, or the selection command maybe the combination of two or more words.

[0019] Subsequent to receiving a selection command from the user andconverting the selection command into a selection signal, if necessary,the master controller then routes control commands, or control signalsfor a selected device indicative of control commands received from theuser to the device specified by the preceding selection command. In thisexemplary instance, control signals would be routed to the laser.Preferred structures for both selection commands and control commandsare disclosed herein in the detailed description of the preferredembodiment of the present invention.

[0020] Additionally, a controller may include means for ensuring thatcontrol signals indicative of control commands issued subsequent to thereceipt of a selection command are, in fact, valid control signals. Thisis accomplished via a database of valid control commands and grammarsthat are either prestored in the master, or are prestored in a slaveprior to or at system startup which is described hereinbelow.

[0021] A second aspect of the present invention is at least one slaveelectrically connected to the master controller. Each slave controllerconnected to the master controller operates similarly to the mastercontroller for specific devices electrically connected thereto;additionally, the slave controllers may receive control commandsdirectly from the user if they are to be used as a stand alone unit.However, if they are utilized as slaves then control commands arereceived at the master controller and converted into control signals andtransmitted from the master controller to the slave controller that hasthe device specified by the last selection command received by themaster controller connected thereto. This allows the control system ofthe present invention to operate with a plurality of different deviceswithout the master controller requiring any knowledge of the devicesconnected to the slave controllers prior to startup of the controlsystem.

[0022] The slave controllers are connected to the master controller justlike any other device; however, each slave controller provides themaster controller information relating to the specific devices that areconnected thereto, so the master controller, generally at startup, isprovided information as to exactly what devices are connected to thesystem. The selection commands available to the user include all devicesconnected to each of the slave controllers as well as the devicesdirectly connected to the master controller. By providing an openarchitecture such as that generally set out hereinabove, and moreparticularly, a master controller and slave controllers, various devicesmay be controlled from a single controller, or a plurality ofcontrollers, such that a doctor utilizing the control system will nothave to switch between different control systems or interfaces, or at aminimum will have an easier interface to control each of the devices. Itis additionally envisioned that the main means for selecting andcontrolling each of the devices will be a voice recognition system whichwill be described in detail hereinbelow.

[0023] Also, the control system may include audio and video outputswhich are capable of alerting the user to errors in selecting, orcontrolling specific devices. The audio and video outputs mayadditionally be used to alert the user to problems with each of thespecific devices as well as to provide status notices as to whichdevice(s) are available, which devices are active, as well as a host ofother device operation information which will be discussed furtherhereinbelow.

[0024] For a more complete understanding of the present invention,reference is made to the following detailed description and accompanyingdrawings. In the drawings, like reference characters refer to likeparts, in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a master controller in electricalcommunication with both slave controllers and operating room devices inaccordance with the present invention;

[0026]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the voice control interface inaccordance with the present invention;

[0027]FIG. 3 is a schematic of the voice control interface card inaccordance with the present invention;

[0028]FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a master controller in accordancewith a the present invention;

[0029]FIG. 5 is an exemplary tree diagram of a grammar for operating adevice in accordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0030] In accordance with the present invention, there is shown in FIG.1 an operating room control system, generally at 10, in accordance withthe present invention. The operating room control system, or controlsystem 10, generally comprises a master controller 12, which ispreferably attached to at least one slave controller 14. Although theexemplary preferred embodiment is shown as having both a mastercontroller 12 and at least one slave controller 14 in electricalcommunication therewith, the control system 10 may be implemented withonly a master controller 12 as will be described hereinbelow.

[0031] The master controller 12 is electrically connected to and inelectrical communication with a plurality of devices 16 via a pluralityof communication ports 46. Alternatively, the master controller 12 maybe connected to any slave or specific medical device via wirelesscommunications systems such as IR or RF signal transmitters andreceivers on each of the master 12, slaves 14, and devices 16. Some ofthese devices 16 may be at least one slave controller 14 the operationof which will be described hereinbelow. Other devices that are intendedto be electrically connected to the master controller 12, eitherdirectly or via the at least one slave controller 14 include devicesthat are commonly found in an operating room environment.

[0032] For purposes of non-limiting example, directly connected to themaster controller 12 in FIG. 1 is an electrocautery device 18. A roboticarm 20 for holding and manipulating an endoscope, such as that producedby Computer Motion of Goleta, Calif. and marketed under the tradenameAESOP is electrically connected with the master controller 12 via one ofthe at least one slave controllers 14. Also in electrical communicationwith the master controller 12 via a slave controller is an operatingroom table 22, an insufflator 24, and an operating room lighting system26. It is envisioned that any electrically controlled device utilized inan operating room environment may be attached to the master controller12 either directly or via one of the at least one slave controllers 14.

[0033] The master controller 12 is configured to provide a main userinterface for each of the devices electrically connected thereto. Assuch, a doctor can manipulate the operating room environment in asimpler and more direct fashion. Currently, each device in an operatingroom includes a separate interface. The proximity of the doctor to eachinterface requires a substantial amount of movement either on the partof the doctor or a nurse to effectuate changes required by the doctorduring a medical procedure.

[0034] For example, if the doctor needs the lights dimmed slightly, thena nurse currently has to approach the lighting system of the operatingroom and dim the lights. It would be highly advantageous for the doctorto be able to control such changes directly to keep movement in theoperating room to a minimum to increase sterility, and because directcontrol by the doctor of the operating room environment and the deviceshe or she is using ensures the highest degree of safety with thesmallest amount of error due to miscommunication between people in theoperating room. Minimization of movement in an operating roomenvironment is additionally advantageous to reduce the risk ofcontamination of specific sterile instruments, as well as the operativesite itself.

[0035] To effectuate such a control system 10, the master controller 12generally comprises a voice control interface (VCI) 32. The VCI 32includes means 28 for receiving selection commands from a user whereineach selection command is associated with one specific device inelectrical communication with the master controller 12. This isaccomplished by providing the master controller 12 a list of the devicesthat are in electrical communication therewith upon start-up of thecontrol system 10. The process and hardware for providing the mastercontroller 12 with such a list will be described hereinbelow.

[0036] As shown in FIG. 2, The VCI 32 additionally comprises means 30for receiving control commands from a user. In the preferred embodiment,both the means 28 for receiving selection commands and the means 30 forreceiving control commands may coexist in the VCI 32 as a microphone 34,for receiving the actual speech of the user, an analog to digitalconverter 36 for converting the analog speech into a digitalrepresentation thereof, a feature extractor 38 for converting thedigital representation to a digital representation that is suited fordecoding, and a decoder 40 for comparing the features of the transformeddigital representation of the speech to a set of presaved user-models 41to determine whether the speech received at the microphone 34 was aselection command, a control command, or some other speech to be ignoredby the master controller 12. Such “other speech” would includeextraneous noise, speech between the doctor and another person in theoperating suite, as well as speech of other people in the operatingsuite in general.

[0037] Feature extractors, such as the one employed in the presentinvention, are well known in the art of voice recognition. Featurevectors are preferably generated by the feature extractor 38 utilizingtechniques such as Mel-Cepstrum, or linear prediction. It is to beappreciated that such techniques are well-known and are employed in thefeature extractor 38 to develop feature vectors that represent speechreceived by the VCI 32.

[0038] Additionally, voice software is also available that providesextractors and decoders such as the ones set out in the presentapplication. As such, although a specific implementation is presentedherein for voice recognition, it may be carried out by the inclusion ofa pre-made voice recognition system that is purchased from a vendor suchas Creative labs under the tradename VOICE BLASTER, Dragon Dictateproduced by Dragon Systems, or VOICE PAD produced by Kurzweil AI ofMassachusetts, each of these companies produce front-end voicerecognition systems.

[0039] The decoder 40 utilizes the information produced by the featureextractor 38, by matching the stored user models 41 to the output of thefeature extractor 38 utilizing a well-known method, such as a HiddenMarkov Modeling. One Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is created for eachphoneme. The HMMs are trained to identify their respective phonemesgiven the Mel-Cepstrrun output from the feature extractor 38. The use ofHidden Markov Models for voice recognition is generally well known.

[0040] The stored user models 41 used by the decoder 40 may be placed ina memory 44 associated with the VCI itself. As depicted in FIG. 3, sucha memory 44 may be incorporated onto a VCI board 46 as an EPROM, a PROMor some other programmable memory storage device. However, it ispreferable to store the models on a transportable memory device 45, suchas a disk, transportable storage medium or the like. It is even morepreferable that the transportable memory device be a PCMCIA format card48 as data transfer times are reduced and the ruggedness of the systemis increased. PCMCIA format cards retain data better than floppy disks.Additionally, the configuration of currently produced PCMCIA cardsallows for additional program data to be stored on the PCMCIA formatcard and downloaded into the master controller 12 when system changesare made (i.e. upgrades to the system software etc.). Therefore, the useof such a PCMCIA form factor card is preferable in the control system 10of the present invention.

[0041]FIG. 3 depicts, in more detail, the VCI 32. Once the user's speechhas been digitized at the A/D converter 36, it is fed to the featureextractor 38. The feature extractor 38 functions as set out hereinabove.In more detail, the feature extractor 38 converts the digitized signalinto a representation that is suitable for decoding (e.g. Mel-Cepstrum).This representation is then passed to the decoder 40 which compares therepresentations produced at the feature extractor 38 to the modelsstored on a memory 44 which contains the user models 41. The memory 44may be supplied the models 41 via a downloading process from thetransportable memory device 45. The models stored in the memory 44constitute a lexicon, which is the entire set of valid pronunciations,or all of the valid words that the master 12 is to recognize. Becausethe lexicon is stored on a transportable data storage medium 41, thelexicon may be added to or subtracted from depending upon the devicesthat are to be connected to the master controller 12. In this fashion,if new equipment is purchased at a date subsequent to the purchase ofthe master controller 12, then new words may be added to the lexiconthrough a well-known data acquisition technique, wherein the user speaksthe words that are to be added to the lexicon and they are used toupdate the user models 41 on the transportable memory 45.

[0042] Most preferable to the implementation of the present system 10,there is provided one master controller 12 and at least one slave 14controller. In such a configuration, which will be discussed in moredetail hereinbelow, once the master controller or master 12 receives aselection command, all speech received at the VCI 32 of the master 12that is not a new selection command is fed to the feature extractor ofthe appropriately attached slave 14. In this way, a plurality of devicesmay be attached to several different controllers and the lexicon storedin each controller does not have to be downloaded into the master 12.The master 12 only contains the lexicon of all the devices that may beconnected to the system 10 as well as the lexicon for the commands ofthose devices that are directly attached to the master 12 as opposed tobeing attached to a slave 14 which is, in turn, attached to the master12.

[0043] All the other controllers, which for purposes herein, arereferred to as slaves 14, include the lexicon for the devices that aredirectly connected thereto. For example, in FIG. 1, one slave includesthe lexicon for the control commands and the select commands for arobotic arm and an operating table. This way, that controller can have amicrophone plugged into the VCI which is included in the unit and it mayserve as a solo unit. Or, depending upon the configuration of thecontrol system 10, it may actually server as a master. The entire system10 is configurable at startup and as such is expandable. Everycontroller preferably includes a VCI.

[0044] The decoder 40 additionally contains a language model. This termis well-known on the art and will be explained further hereinbelow. Inessence, certain words may be validly said in certain orders. Thelanguage model is implemented by developing a network representing allthe valid possibilities of word combinations and decoding the extractedvectors along each path in the network. Whichever path has the highestprobability of matching the incoming speech, the information associatedwith that path is selected by the decoder 40. It is to additionally beappreciated that to carry out the present invention, a silence path isavailable and an unrecognized command path is provided as well. As such,even though a user speaks, if valid commands are not given, the system10 will not respond.

[0045]FIG. 5 sets out one exemplary language model for the properoperation of the robotic arm 20. Such language models are developed foreach device in electrical communication with the master controller 12.Once again, a device may be in wireless communication with the mastercontroller 12. It is preferable to store the language models for eachdevice in their respective controller. For example, if a device isdirectly connected to a slave 14 then the control language model (thatlanguage model containing the language used to control the device) forthe device is stored in the slave VCI. If the device is directlyconnected to the master 12 then the control language model is includedin the VCI of the master 12. It is to be appreciated that the selectlanguage model must be stored in the master 12 for all the possibledevices that may be directly connected to the master 12 as opposed tobeing connected to a slave. As such, depending upon what devices areconnected to the system at any given time, a user may select from any ofthe connected devices. If a device is not connected, the system willrecognize this upon startup and will not attempt to access the device asit is not there. This will be discussed in more detail hereinbelow.

[0046] If a device is connected directly to the master controller 12,then it is preferable to store the language model for controlling thedevice either in the VCI itself, or in the transportable memory 45. Theadvantages of this configuration are set out hereinbelow with respect tothe startup of the control system 10.

[0047] If a select command is given for a device that is directlyconnected to the master 12, then the information is passed to thedecoder in the master 12 and the decoder 40 generates a packet 52 ofinformation. The packet includes the address of the device to beoperated, a code representing the specific operation, and a checksum toensure that as the packet 52 is transferred over various busses, thedata does not become corrupted. Such information packaging is well-knownalthough the specific package set out hereinabove has heretofore notbeen utilized to control one of a plurality of medical devices. Datachecking using a checksum is also well-known in the art.

[0048] The decoder 40, upon decoding a valid selection command,activates the address of the device which has been stored in a lookuptable and is related to the device. This is accomplished as follows. Atstartup every controller, whether the master 12 or a slave 14 knows theaddresses of its communication ports. It sends a query to eachcommunication port to see if a device is connected thereto. If so, anadapter connected to the device specifies the name of the device and anindication that it is functioning properly. Such adapters are well knownin the electrical arts and as such will not be further discussed herein.Every slave controller establishes a lookup table of addresses andassociated device codes or names. The device codes or names aretransmitted to the master 12 which includes all the devices and thecorresponding address of the port to which the associated slavecontroller is connected to the master 12.

[0049] The addresses of all devices available are initially stored in amemory associated with the VCI such that a multiplexer may be used toactivate a specific address or make that address accessible. In thisfashion, once the master 12 receives a valid selection command, which itis able to identify, it then routes all the control commands to the VCIof the appropriate slave controller in the case where the deviceselected is connected to a slave controller. If the selected device isconnected directly to the master 12 then the control commands are fedthrough the decoder 40 of the master 12 and the control informationpacket is produced and sent to the device via the central processor 44of the master 12. In this fashion, the VCI of a slave is fed controlsignals and processes those signals as though they were received fromthe A/D converter, which is where the input to the slave is routed.Every slave can be attached to one master, and that master, can, in turnbe attached to another master, thus providing a daisychain of slaves allof which are connected to one master having a microphone attachedthereto.

[0050] In addition to the VCI 32, the master controller 12 comprisesmeans 42 for routing control signals to a device specified by aselection command received at the VCI 32. FIG. 4 depicts the mastercontroller 12 having one slave controller 14 and two medical devices inelectrical communication therewith. The master controller includes theVCI 32 as well as the means 42 for routing control signals. Once thespeech has been extracted and decoded into either a selection command,or a control command, the specific command is transmitted to the CentralProcessor 44 of the master controller 12.

[0051] In the preferred embodiment, the means 42 for routing controlsignals is incorporated into the central processor 44 of the mastercontroller 12. The means 42 for routing is essentially an addressablemultiplexer and has a memory of the addresses for each device and theirassociated one of the plurality of communication ports 46 to which theyare connected. If the addresses are stored in the decoder 40, then thecentral processor 44 will be in communication with that memory.

[0052] The means 42 for routing, takes the packet 50 of information orthe control signal, if the information is to be sent to a slave 14,checks which of the plurality of communication ports 46 it is to directthe information to and then directs the information to the desired oneof the plurality 46 of ports.

[0053] The addresses and their associated ports are uploaded into themaster 12 upon startup of the system. This procedure is embedded in thesoftware and such a procedure is well-known in the art.

[0054] For example, in FIG. 4, an electrocautery device 18 transmits anaddress to the master controller 12. The address is received at a one ofa plurality of communication ports 46, the address is saved in thememory along with the associated communication port number. It is to beappreciated that the valid selection commands are stored on thetransportable memory. For devices directly connected to the master, thelanguage model may be stored in a memory in the master 12 or in thetransportable memory. Language models are stored in associated slavesfor devices that are directly connected to a slave 14. In this fashion,upon startup, the master 12 knows all devices that are connected to thesystem, as each slave sends to the master the addresses of each deviceand the name (i.e. coded phonemes that constitute the device) of thedevice. The names of the devices are uploaded into the master so thatthe validity of selection commands may take place in the master 12.However, language models for the validity of control commands are nottransmitted to the master 12 as this would take much time and slow thecontrol system 10 down. Therefore, the master controller 12 actuallycontains a subset of the grammar necessary to operate the devices inconnection therewith, but that language model is limited to only thedevice names. The information regarding valid sequences of controlcommands (i.e. their control language model) is stored on each slavecontroller to which they are connected. Of course, if the device 14 isdirectly connected to the master, then the language model is stored atthe master 12 as described hereinabove.

[0055] The control system 10 in accordance with the present inventionprovides a way to configure and reconfigure an operating room in a verysimple fashion. Additionally, it is to be appreciated that the system 10provides an intuitive interface whereby a user can select a device tocontrol and then subsequently control that device. The system checks toensure that control commands received for a specific device are valid.

[0056] Additionally, the system 10 requires the inclusion of adapters 52placed intermediate a specific one of the plurality of devices 16 and aslave or the master 12. The adapters 52 transmit signals to theirrespective slave 14 or master 12 indicative of the address of thedevice, and translate control signals sent from the controller to whichthey are connected to signals understood by the particular device forwhich they are intended. Such adapters are easily constructed and arewell-known in the art. Additionally, such adapters may be includedeither in the respective slave 14 or master 12 or attached to theparticular one of the plurality of devices 16 itself. There issubstantial advantage to attaching the adapters 52 to the devices 16 asthen the devices may be attached to any port, whereas, if the adaptersare attached interior the controller 12, 14, the specific device forwhich they were designed must be attached to the specific one of theplurality of communication ports 46.

[0057] If new devices are added to the system, or if improvements orupgrades are made to the system software, such changes may beincorporated into a PCMCIA format card, such as the card that stores theuser voice models. The card may be inserted into the same interface,however, system software may be uploaded into the master to make theupgrade without having to disassemble the master. This is accomplishedby incorporating a serial interface on the PCMCIA format card. As such,the central processor 44 additionally checks upon startup whether thereis a system upgrade to be made by checking the data being supplied bythe PCMCIA format card. Checking the activity of a serial interface iswell known, however it is not heretofore known to incorporate a serialinterface on a single PCMCIA format card. Therefore, the combination isseen to be novel. Additionally, it is heretofore not known toincorporate voice models on such a PCMCIA format card.

[0058] Each of the at least one slave 14 is substantially similar to themaster controller 12. And, each of the plurality of slaves 14 mayinclude the full VCI so that each slave 14 can operate as a master.Alternatively, although not preferred, the slaves may not include thefeature extractor, and only contain a subset of the language model (i.e.control commands) relating to the operation of each specific device.This is all that may be necessary in the slave because the slavereceives from the master controller the specific address a command is tobe sent and that it is in fact a command. Therefore, the slave onlyneeds to check to ensure that it is a valid command for the specificdevice. In this fashion, devices may be directly connected to themaster, or they may be connected to a slave which is in communicationwith the master 12.

[0059] The system 10 may include output means including a video monitor86 and a speaker 88. The speaker may be incorporated into the VCI 32 viaa D/A converter 90 such that the system may communicate to the user anyerrors committed by the user in operating or selecting a specificdevice. Additionally, the output means may communicate system errors orthe malfunction of a specific device. Such information is included ineach specific adapter and is specific to the device attached to theadapter. It is to be appreciated that such communications would betransmitted to the master where they would be either auditorially orvisually displayed. The system and controller in accordance with theinvention may additionally include a foot controller, a hand controlleror other well-known controllers. Each of these controllers may be usedto control any of the devices connected to the master or a slave, as isdescribed in the patent application incorporated herein by reference. Assuch, the VCI may only be used to select certain devices, and onceselected the device may be controlled via one of the well-knowncontrollers. Ultimately, the flexibility of such a system can reducecosts and increase the safety of surgical procedures.

[0060] Finally, the system 10 may include a connection to a hospitalcomputer network via a network gateway 500. Hospital networks areimplemented in substantially all hospitals and provide for electricalstorage of patient records as well as scheduling and financialinformation.

[0061] The network gateway 500 is preferably a personal computer such asan IBM compatible, or some other well known personal computer runningweb browsing software such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, NetscapeCommunicator or any other known web browsing software.

[0062] By connecting to the hospital network, patient information thatis available at computer terminals in the hospital would also be madeavailable in the operating room. As such, a vocabulary for accessingpatient data must be provided to be used with the control system.Examples of such vocabulary include the commands “get”, “load” and“display”. The data that may be provided includes, but is not limited tox-rays, patient history, MRIs, angiography and CAT scans.

[0063] Through the use of a web browser, the patient data may be sent tothe gateway 500 in a format to be displayed by either a monitor 510connected to the gateway or directly to the monitor. This would beaccomplished through electrical connections already disclosedhereinabove.

[0064] To effectuate the display of patient data in a web browsableformat, essentially HTML or some other well known web format, the datamust be provided to the gateway 500 in such. An access port, essentiallyconsisting of a URL provides a location for the web broswer to obtainpatient information. This UURL provides an interface into the hospitalnetwork.

[0065] Accessing of patient information is well known, however thereformatting of such information into an HTML document is new. BecauseHTML formatting is well known the specifics of such formatting will notbe disclosed herein. In this fashion, patient data may be accessed viavoice commands and displayed on a monitor or a display coupled to thegateway 500.

[0066] While certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention havebeen described and shown on the accompanying drawings, it is to beunderstood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and notrestrictive on the broad invention, and that this invention not belimited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown anddescribed, since various other modifications may occur to thoseordinarily skilled in the art.

As such, what is claimed is:
 1. A control system for selecting from andcontrolling a plurality of devices in an operating room, the controlsystem comprising: a master controller, the master controllercomprising: a) means for receiving selection commands from a userwherein each selection command is associated with a device in electricalcommunication with the master controller; b) means for receiving controlcommands from a user; c) means for converting selection commands andcontrol commands into corresponding selection signals and controlsignals; d) means for routing control signals to a device specified by aselection command received by the means for receiving selectioncommands, the means for routing control signals additionally comprisingmeans for receiving selection signals.
 2. The control system of claim 1further including at least one slave controller in electricalcommunication with the master controller.
 3. The control system of claim1 wherein the master further comprises: a) a microphone configured toreceive voice commands; b) an A/D converter configured to convert voicecommands into digital representations thereof; c) a feature extractorelectrically connected to and in communication with the A/D converter;d) a decoder in electrical communication with the feature extractor, thedecoder configured to generate information packages indicative ofcontrol commands received at the feature extractor; e) a memory inelectrical communication with the decoder wherein the memory containsuser models indicative of specific words that are used to control thesystem; f) a central processor comprising: 1) means for routinginformation generated by the decoder to a specifically addressed device;2) a memory containing addresses for each medical device in electricalcommunication with the master controller.
 4. The system of claim 3wherein the master controller includes a PCMCIA card interface.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4 wherein user models are contained on a PCMCIA cardthat may be inserted into the PCMCIA card interface.
 6. The system ofclaim 2 wherein the slave controller comprises means for modeling thesequence of valid commands.
 7. The system of claim 6 further including aplurality of adapters corresponding to the number of devices inelectrical communication with the master controller, wherein eachadapter has an associated address and means for converting controlsignals into signals recognized by each specific device.
 8. The systemof claim 1 wherein the plurality of devices comprises medical devices.9. The system of claim 3 wherein the master controller comprisesremovable storage media.